Post-war Britain was a land of rationing, smog and chilblains. Yet somehow from all this grew the National Health Service - a beacon lighting the way to the society we wished to create. Public service institutions like this would not exist without the hard work of the then migrant workers. UNISON's black members have picked up the torch, as Gary Flood explains
The backbone of British services
According to a recent internet poll the greatest ever black Briton was a Jamaican born nursing pioneer who tended to wounded soldiers in the Crimean War. If you have never heard of Mary Seacole (1805-1881) you are not alone - she never got the recognition she deserved. And hers is a story echoed by the experiences of so many of the immigrants who helped set up the NHS in the 1950s and who day by day keep it running.Though less well known than Florence Nightingale, Seacole's achievements rival those of the more famous "lady with the lamp". Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Seacole was the daughter of a Scottish soldier and a Jamaican healing-woman; she travelled widely and gained expertise in treating cholera, one of the main health problems for British soldiers in the Crimean War. Seacole was forced to make her own way out to Russia - London authorities refused her offer of aid - where her self-funded improvised hospital saved many lives. Overshadowed by Florence Nightingale it's only been in the last few years that her contribution to British healthcare has been acknowledged.
A hundred years after the Crimean War the newly started NHS turned to immigrant labour to operate - as it does still today. As black writer and political activist Darcus Howe recently said, "Don't talk to us about the NHS - we've been carrying it on our backs for 40 years."
UNISON national black members officer Wilf Sullivan explains that black workers have played a crucial role in providing public services since the late 1950s and the aftermath of the second world war. "Today we welcome the overseas nurses, for example, that come to the UK and cover for the chronic shortage of nurses," he says. "Without them, our health service would collapse. Every day we see the valuable contribution black members make to all public services."
Our public services rely heavily on both new and old immigrant help. The government's 2001 census showed that just over a quarter of all public sector workers were from black and minority ethnic groups, as are 40% of doctors, dentists and nurses, rising to more than half among nursing auxiliaries.
June 2003 research from the Mayor of London's office found that although nearly 200,000 Londoners from minority communities work in local government, health, and other sectors, they remain on the lower steps of the career ladder, with not enough people from an ethnic minority background currently in senior positions.
This can be frustrating. "Many of us are and remain dedicated to the health service, despite the problems," says Gloria Jack, a registered general nurse at the Royal Berkshire and Battle NHS Trust, who's been working in the NHS all her working life since her emigration from the Caribbean. "But it can be demoralising for some."
Today's public services serve a much more culturally mixed UK than in Seacole's time. Just under 10% of British residents are now from ethnic minorities, a figure that climbs to around 30% in London, and by 2050 about 20% of the British population will come from an ethnic minority - many of them fourth or fifth generation.
The delivery of public services needs to reflect that diversity - a move signaled by the recent provision of a special 36-language phrase book in UK accident and emergency facilities in order to better provide emergency care for a diverse population of NHS users (see pages 4-7).
The message is clear: immigration has and will continue to provide a mainstay of health provision, very much in the tradition of pioneering Mary Seacole.
Robbina Jilani
"This can be a tough job but I get the greatest satisfaction helping people make a difference," says Jilani, who's been working in the field for more than 20 years.
Originally a trained nursery nurse, Jilani has worked in a number of education and child protection jobs for Manchester social and education services. She brings a unique perspective to her current role: as both a practicing Muslim and someone who came to the UK in the late 1960s and who experienced first-hand the racism of the Enoch Powell era, she says that cultural sensitivity is always needed.
"For example, it's important to see that in situations such as forced marriages you must be sensitive to the culture but there are plainly some situations that just aren't right for children to be involved with, and you can go too far over the line," she says.
Jilani has worked hard, having to support her husband through an illness - but she's also seen her three sons start to establish successful careers (her eldest is setting out to become an aeronautical engineer). And she looks with sadness at the current anti-asylum seeker and immigrant situation, remembering her own experience - her father came to the UK to work in 1962 and brought his family over from Pakistan to settle in 1969.
"Some things that were said to me years ago still stick - and hurt. But we need people to come here and help work in public services," she says. "If there are jobs that need doing, they ought to be able to come here, do the work, and get the recognition and acceptance they deserve. We need to make more people aware of the danger people like the BNP represents."
June Nelson
"I want to see black staff having much more of a say in the way the NHS is run - this is something that quite frankly is well overdue."
Nelson believes that black staff have also been left behind for too long in the training and promotion stakes. "It's just time for us to not have to justify ourselves," she says.
Nelson - who's worked in the NHS for the past 20 years, and until last summer was also a member of UNISON's national executive committee - says her active union involvement began in 1985. She successfully campaigned for black colleagues who'd been unfairly treated to be regraded, the start of continuing fights for more recognition of black health service members' contribution.
"The NHS is an important institution, but I worry that there's too much indirect racism," she says. "It's about time we stopped having to justify ourselves and people started looking beyond our skins - to our character and dedication."
Angela Jariwala
The site has brought together the online services of four major London boroughs - Hounslow, Kingston, Merton and Richmond - in order to provide the 600,000 people living in the area with access to services and information. It also aims to provide community groups with a platform to raise awareness of their activities.
Jariwala is web manager for Hounslow council, and says that the Livinlondon site reflects the true cultural diversity of the area she's lived in all her life. "South west London is a cosmopolitan area, with some very interesting places," she says. "And all four boroughs contribute their own individuality making the site very appealing to users."
Her job involves liaising with council colleagues to put relevant council service content up on the site, as well as helping to develop new systems like paying council tax online. She's worked on the web at Hounslow and Livinlondon since she joined last year - a job she thoroughly enjoys.
Jariwala has had a varied career working in both private industry, including big firms such as British Airways and News International, and in the public sector with Southwark Council funded women's group 'Aaina', where among others things she helped Asian women with their English language skills (she's fluent in Gujarati). She's also a published author of teenage novels.
But the main thing for her at the moment is to make both the Livinlondon and Hounslow council sites as useful as possible for local residents.
"Providing a seamless and accessible one-stop-shop for council services and events online cuts out the hassle for our residents - making the web the easiest place to go to when they need information."
